photo by Dave
As the old year winds down and a new year looms before us, this is also my last “Minister’s Contribution” as part of the weekly Support Page and I am entering a new life-phase as “a retired guy.” This weekly communication arose out of necessity during Covid, as we struggled to stay in touch with each other as a congregation and navigate a new world of challenges together. Even when the Covid epidemic ended (mostly ended), the Support Page continued and evolved as a way to communicate and share resources. In the coming days, the name of the Support Page or its usage may change, but the creative energies that have kept it going will continue.
What comes next?
Covid numbers are still high in the local area, so we continue to be cautious in our approach to the Sunday Services and activities at UUHoulton.
Services are still being held, but we urge each individual to use their own discretion. Use of masks are encouraged and please self-test if possible. If you are symptomatic or test positive please do not attend the service and take care. Masks will be available. We will get through this!For last Sunday’s Service and the Christmas Eve Service we made our first attempt at using Zoom to live-stream the service. We are still experimenting to improve the zoom-experience, so bear with us, but we will try it again.
The link is included here, as well as the usual location in the Support Page. Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/85239326215?pwd=nmi4gnxmvVtzAEbqa4S7VGSpV7C14I.1Sunday Service this week is led by Kathryn Harnish held in our cozy parlor space for the last service of 2025. I plan to be at the service (in a non-participating role) and this will be the last time I will attend for a while. We will discuss what this transition into new roles looks like at the end of the service or during coffee hour. Our YouTube Channel content for this week is the Fourth Sunday of Advent and my final Sunday Service as your minister. It’s hard to believe that 25 years have gone by so quickly, but they have, and in the homily I will share recollections and stories from my experience. The title of the homily is “Recollections” and I will include “Dave’s Top 10 List” of memories along with a short slide show. (Watch how Dave has aged through the years…)
We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.
Keep warm and enjoy the weekend!
In Ministry,
Dave
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service Invocation and Homily (2025)Rev. David Hutchinson
Nativity Scene 1410
Dom Simone Cameldolese
Invocation
And now may the stillness of this night
and the sacred promises of ancient days
calm our spirit and ease the burden of our being
as we gather in this place
a holy respite in times of stress and unpredictability,
a moment to pause and reflect on our own condition,
a space for quiet thought,
small awakenings and undreamt dreams.
As the shepherds tending their flocks in the fields
had no idea of what was about to happen,
so may we too, hear the familiar story anew
as if we had never heard it before;
a new born baby in a rustic manger,
angels singing in a heavenly choir,
traveling magi from the east,
young parents filled with wonder,
a world waiting for a new king and a new kingdom
Who would have believed such a thing?
So let us repeat the story again.
Let us be amazed with the unexpected once again.
Let Christmas come.
And again I say,
Let Christmas come.
A Christmas Homily
This story begins with the year there almost wasn’t a Christmas.
I was eleven years old and it was 1971, and everyone was talking about the biggest snow storm of the year arriving overnight on Christmas Eve. My grandparents always visited our house on Christmas Eve and we were allowed to open one gift, which was always a big deal. (Which gift would we choose to open first?) We would eat Christmas goodies, drinks eggnog, sit around the tree and each of us open the one present. My grandparents would return early the next morning for Christmas breakfast and then we’d all open the rest of our presents. But this year, with the big storm, we weren’t sure if they’d be able to make it back, which had never happened before! Remember, when you’re eleven years old there isn’t much “life perspective” in play, so this was a very big deal. My grandparents lived on top of the hill from our house, so they weren’t very far away, but it seemed as if they lived in the North Pole. How would they ever make it if it snowed as much as the forecast predicted? Well, my Dad had a snow plow, and he assured us, that no matter what, no matter how much snow fell, he would find a way to get up that hill, plow them out and get them to our house (along with all their presents)he would get them here in time for Christmas Day. Well, we went to bed that night, not knowing if there was going to be Christmas or not, but when we woke up early the next morning Dad was already plowing out our driveway from (what seemed like) the biggest snowfall I had ever seen in my life. He plowed us out, made his way up the hill, plowed them out, and before we knew it here they were, Dad, my grandparents and all the presents pulling into our driveway and the bacon and pancakes would soon be cooking on the grill. Christmas happened!
1971 was also the year a new TV sitcom debuted on CBS on Saturday nights, Norman Lear’s Emmy Award winning All In The Family. In my eleven year old memory I remember linking that Christmas snowstorm with The TV show All in the Family and then growing up with Archie Bunker, Michael and Gloria, Edith and the Jefferson’s who lived next door. I have an Archie Bunker for president political pin from 1972, right along with my George McGovern pin. With the recent passing of Rob Reiner, who played the role of Archie Bunker’s son-in-law, Michael Stivic, also known as Meathead, this Christmas memory-association, for me, takes on additional meaning.
Growing up as a teenager in the 1970s this show served as my basic orientation to the social issues of the day and the first time I’d heard of Queens, New York. I was aware at the time that it was a controversial show airing issues that were not usually addressed on a TV sitcom, but the main characters were so entertaining it was hard to ignore…And the show did not shy away from political incorrectness. I heard language for the first time I had never heard anywhere else before. Lear later admitted that although his use of satire was sometimes missed by the audience it was important to says these things out loud in a public forum.
I vividly remember the comic image of Carol O’Connor and Rob Reiner getting stuck in the doorway when the two of them would try to go through it at the exact same time. Neither one of them would back-off. They would push and shove until they both made it into the next room exhausted and out of breath. I think that image captures the tension and struggle between the two characters, ideologies and generations. Our nation was also in a tense social-political struggle at the time (as it is now)and the show reflected the signs of the times.
Looking back now (with a little historical perspective) when I first encountered the history of the civil rights movement in my high school social studies class those events had occurred less than ten years before. Since I was watching it in black and white news reel films and studying it in a textbook I (mistakenly) assumed the civil rights movement was over and the issues had been resolved. I thought “All in the Family” was just doing some mop-up duty and then we would all move along as a culture to the next pressing issues facing us. Well, I was wrong. If the last few years have proved anything, it’s proved we still have plenty of work to advance around race, prejudice and systemic injustice. As a nation, part of our vision is finding a way to come together as a family, dysfunctional and diverse perhaps, but a family of shared loyalties and commitment. We are all in this together.
Out of all the movies that Rob Reiner is associated with, one movie that has universal appeal, no matter what one’s political leaning might be, is the 1987 film “The Princess Bride.” When I met Linda, I was required to watch The Princess Bride, which was a Rowe Family classic, everyone knows all the lines. It’s a modern classic fairy tale where you can apply and interpret meaning in a wide and inclusive range.
The Christmas story of Bethlehem and Nativity carries the same universal themes and applications; the full range of villains and heroes, of cruelty and compassion, of fear, anxiety as well as peace on earth and good will to all humankind. These are the messages that we need in the world right now. Peace, justice, equity and inclusion. How do we find our common humanity and provide basic security, dignity and necessities for all.
When the year started out, I wasn’t sure how it was going to end up. As bad as it got, to be honest, I thought it was going to be worse. But here we are. There is certainly lot’s of work to do, but we have another year to keep doing it. I almost thought that, like I was when I was eleven years old Christmas was not going to happen, but here we are and it is.
Our common humanity holds us together, regardless of our life circumstance, ethnicity, political party or location.
With the nativity a vulnerable infant enters the world into the care of humanity…
That is the stark nature of nativity.
The story plays out each Christmas,
we know how it goes,
and we need to hear it over and over again.
In spite of the all the reasons to abandon our humanity,
return to the message of the stable, a mother and child, the shepherds, the magi and the angels.
Hope, peace, love and joy are declared in the heavens even tonight.
Hear, O hear, the angels sing…
(© Owl Illustration Agency/Unsplash+)
Image Description: A person stands at a threshold with the unknown swirling before them.
Coming Events:SAVE THE DATE -DAVE’S RETIREMENT CELEBRATIONJanuary 24th 2-5 PM
Hosted at UU Houlton. There will be a zoom optionas well as “live” in person. More details to follow…
THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:
HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE
(Please note it won’t be active until 10AM on Sunday morning)
HERE IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR SUNDAY SERVICE & COFFEE HOUR:(Starts at 10AM)Topic: UUHoulton zoom service & coffee hourTime: Dec 28, 2025 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/85239326215?pwd=nmi4gnxmvVtzAEbqa4S7VGSpV7C14I.1
Meeting ID: 852 3932 6215Passcode: 859213
Calendar of Events @UUHoultonDec 28 Sunday Service: Kathryn HarnishJan 4 Sunday Service: Open-Pulpit ServiceJan 11 Sunday Service: TBAJan 12 UU Board Meeting in the Parlor 4PM All are welcome to attend!Jan 16 Houlton Coffeehouse at 7PMJan 18 Sunday Service: Kathryn Harnish “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution”Jan 24 Celebrating Rev. Dave Hutchinson In The Cup Cafe at 2PMJan 25 Sunday Service: MaryAlice Mowry
Poetry Corner:The Day After…
by Ralph Blanchard
I think the next day
Is what I mostly like
About Christmas when
The wrapping paper and tinsel and
Other gay detritus are carefully
Tucked away and the
Happy excited look in
Children’s eyes is fresh
In yesterday’s memory along
With the kindly smiles
Of family and friends
And strangers even
And I am aware
That we have safely navigated
The white water of another
Year with its successes
And its sorrows, and our
Eyes now focus only on the tree
With all its baubles collected over
A lifetime hanging quietly and
The space beneath it emptied of the
Brightly colored packages
And the tree alone directing us
To peaceful paths
With its symbolic star
I like the day okay but the next day
Is the one I prefer, offering a quiet space
A universal exhalation
The day after, when thoughts are
Gathered up and cast into clear light,
I see the suffering world and the dim
Outline of small things I’m meant to do
I also hear the laughter
And the mixture of the two
Brings hope that each next day
Will find us further on
Ralph Blanchard
a member of the Durango, Colorado, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, is a retired naval officer, journalist and pacifist
How to Work with the Winter Blues
“Perhaps,” says Sylvia Boorstein, “these days of less sunlight are opportunities for more contemplative time, more looking deeply to see what can only be seen in the dark.”
These are especially hard days for people whose minds are burdened with the fatigue of depression, the grief of loss, even the relatively mild Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that seems directly related to the amount of daylight. Someone once said to me, “The view out the window looks like the inside of my mind. Hopeless.” Right after Thanksgiving, therapists I know begin saying, “I can’t wait until the holidays are over. Everyone feels worse. It’s such a problem to try to be happy if you’re not.”
So for these darkening days, here are some thoughts about varieties of mind fatigue, how psychotherapy is sometimes helpful, how meditation is sometimes helpful, how medication is sometimes helpful, how patience is always helpful.
Depression
A friend of mine, a woman I’ll call Eve, began mindfulness meditation shortly before I did, twenty-five years ago. Eve is a psychologist, successful at her work. I met her at my first retreat. She told me that she had the same clinical depression that her mother and grandmother had before her. Eve’s particular depression came and went in cycles of several month intervals, not predictable by season or situation. She had been in psychotherapy for long periods of her life, and said it had supported her through some very difficult times. Eve began to meditate years ago hoping it also would help her depression. She went on retreat often and had a regular meditation practice at home.
I particularly remember her enthusiasm for practice, which was evident even as she told me, all those years ago, “I still have the same cycles of depression. They are not different, but I am different. First of all, I see the cycles coming on more clearly than I did before, and I adjust my work schedule so it’s easier for me to manage. I’m also less anxious about them because I know they will pass. I’m just more relaxed about it all.”
When the mind is balanced and energetic, mindfulness supports the development of insight.
These days there are drugs to treat Eve’s depression and she takes them. And she still has a regular meditation practice. “The difference,” Eve said to me recently, “is that I used to end retreats just balanced enough to keep on going. Now I start reasonably balanced. My mind has energy in it. I’m starting to see things I hadn’t seen before. I’m surprised, especially after all these years of looking at myself, to see parts of my own psyche that I never saw before. I’m even starting to see the habits that set up extra suffering in my mind, and I’m not doing them so much. Now I feel like I’m really meditating.”
I think Eve was always really meditating. It was enough that the quiet and seclusion of her meditation times, on and off retreat, was soothing to her, and that her determination to try to concentrate created enough energy so she could say, “I feel balanced.”
Mindfulness, in my experience, does not cure clinical depression. But when the mind is balanced and energetic, mindfulness supports the development of insight. And even when the mind lacks energy, paying attention soothes the anxiety about the fatigue. Any lessening of suffering is good.
Grief
Grief is different from depression. Grief is the intense sadness associated with the loss of something dear—the death of a loved one, the failure of a relationship, the collapse of a career, the unexpected onset of an incurable illness. Grief is the natural reaction of the mind to a shock. My own experience of it is that the mind feels numbed. Maybe the numbness is the body providing temporary anesthesia for the pain.
Mourning, when the mind is ready to acknowledge the loss, seems the beginning of the process of healing, and it takes however long it takes. My friend Judi told me that the first year after her partner Meg died was the hardest. She said she needed to do one Thanksgiving, one Christmas, one Valentine’s Day, one of everything they had done together, by herself, before she began to feel like herself again. It’s different for everyone. Another friend of mine told me she needed to wait five years before she was able to even begin to cry about her mother’s death.
The insight of impermanence, the deep down sense that everything, including current grief, mercifully passes, is comforting.
Talking about sadness is good for the mourning process. Having someone who is able to witness grief with compassion, someone who isn’t frightened by pain, eases the burden of keeping it unspoken. Loving friends are good. Grief counselors are good. Grief isn’t an illness. Usually it does not need either therapy or medication. It needs time.
Meditations that are comforting might be helpful. Silent meditation retreats, I’ve discovered, are helpful for some people and not for others. Someone I know came to Spirit Rock Meditation Center a week after the death of his teenage son some time ago. Now he comes every year, for that same week. The silence and seclusion allow him to feel safe enough to cry. For others, the sense of isolation and the absence of stimuli seem to magnify the pain. The insight of impermanence, the deep down sense that everything, including current grief, mercifully passes, is comforting. It doesn’t erase sadness. It supports the ability to be sad. It is unwise, though, I think, to remind grieving people of impermanence. They feel unheard. The insight arises by itself, as part of the natural mourning process, in its own time.
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder is a relatively new term in the psychology lexicon. People used to call it Wintertime Blues. It’s a good thing that scientists have named it, and figured out that the absence of daylight is a probable cause. Maybe it is that. Legitimizing Seasonal Affective Disorder makes it possible for people to talk about it, and not feel they need to hide it. It also gives people courage to wait it out. It will pass, soon, after the solstice.
And maybe we also experience Seasonal Affective Disorder because this is a time of endings, and there is a melancholy about endings, especially if some hope for what might have been has not been fulfilled. Perhaps it’s a good thing to let ourselves be sad, at least enough to recognize the losses in our lives that we’ve avoided seeing. Perhaps these days of less sunlight are opportunities for more contemplative time, more looking deeply to see what perhaps can only be seen in the dark.
As we move toward the return of the light, blessings for a new year.
ABOUT SYLVIA BOORSTEIN
Sylvia Boorstein is a psychologist and leading teacher of Insight Meditation. Her many best-selling books include Pay Attention, for Goodness’ Sake and Happiness Is An Inside Job.
Christmas Eve Altar with “Old Man Winter”
Dave & Linda send Holiday Greetings!!
Judith and Dave selfie after the Candlelight Service!
UUHoulton side entrance under the full moon of December (2025)
Prayer List
For those working for social justice and societal change
Pray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nation
The war in Ukraine continues
Prayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Prayers for the peace process in the Middle East
Prayers for those still affected by the interruption of SNAP benefits and heating assistance
(the government shutdown is now over, but it may take time for benefits to resume)
Prayers for those in need of food and shelter during the cold winter days
Prayers for peace and justice in the new year
The Four Limitless Ones Prayer
May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May we dwell in the great equanimity free from anger, aggression and delusion.
Comments are closed